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The Artist

by Jon David Russell

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1.
Elizabeth 03:38
Elizabeth, listen. (Hear what I say): I won’t ever drive you that way Again. But it was so June And you looked so sweet to me. There were people With faces on that day Faces that were strange I won’t ever endanger you Again. I’m glad we’re alive I feel empty and cold to know what I did. Elizabeth, I’ll begin To look into my heart Let you know that then I was never embarrassed When you saw me with your eyes Or when you touched me with your skin You should come on by I love you, you should come on by I would love to Love to see you in another light.
2.
Death comes on like a dream to me Nightly, and mysteriously I sleep and it gets up I sleep and it gets up Maybe I ought not believe in you Maybe first you'd like to prove it to me? Then a sweet voice comes on sweet breeze It shakes me--I believe Maybe light's the reason I feel burned in any city? Maybe love's a subtlety drowned out in any city? But I've got to learn to look in city O, reaching out of a part of me I say, "Let us walk in the cemetery." It's an always-approaching-eyes-wide-open To learn to love, but learn to look in City--yeah!
3.
Brute movement is a mystery to me It makes loving act invisibly Think-loving saves my fingers endlessly Somebody go and put the human back in me I need an offering of darkness Somebody go and bring the darkness back to me I'm about to lose it in an Eastern light When the big screen explodes with possibility And asks, "Where do you live?" And, "Who do you know?" And, "What do you look like? What do you look like?" --I look like one who looks with eyes. It isn't that I turn from possibility With life streaming right in front of me It isn't that I type with fingers all the time I was lonely in Chicago just one time This plague of locust just gets bigger all the time I'm about to lose it in the Grecian sense When the big flame explodes with possibility And asks, "Where do you live?" And, "Who do you know?" And, "What do you look like? "What do you look like?" --I look like one who looks for help. Brute movement is a mystery to me And think-love is almost invisible And I ask, "Where did it go?" And, "Who do I love?" And, "Where is the darkness?"
4.
Cast Party 01:57
Of jealousies and reticence: I’ll never forget sounds Of beating alone Repeating all night While everyone looked to me As if I was the One All members of this great mystery talk louder than they need Defining music, loving possibility The music was arresting, and for that he didn’t come When I think about the long night I think cast parties are so fun And everybody gets so high The men standing in bathrooms And women waiting for bathrooms And some of us just live there Some of us just live there Say hello if it’s you Say hello if it’s you Say hello
5.
What strangers in Nativities? I know them all by name I keep them all around In case that I am born again I’m riddled with a life that boasts Both harvest and protection And keep them both around to keep me In any direction To drown in objectivity, Doesn’t that sound so strange? It sounds like what my loving really Could’ve been to Ja— I’m pur-sued by a hate that wants me Dead with each erection But keep pursuing Love Despite a natural selection Such wildness in the media Sends me into a haze Like, always rapt and never want to Relive it again I’m driving by a pace that comes In clinical mutations And keep pursuing love Because I like that transportation But nobody at all, just a strangeness about city No money at all, just a strangeness about city No loving at all
6.
I lay it down when I’m high But I sit left when I’m alone Alone again, again alone, why? I lay out my design Pile up scrap technologies And sand and saw, and saw and sand So to speak And I come into you And then you breathe Ooh, I like it Sandy-Headed Man I believe in a Table of wood Table of leather, electricity, and fire But never alone with science and technology On my side And when I move you move, too Do you see what I mean That’s more like it, Sandy-Headed Man B I am freed by a table of wood Because I could not stand I only lean when I’m alone Never alone again alone alone alone
7.
Hey, come meet me in the water I came half-way in water To become immersed completely To be calmed by Voice Complete A sea of summer fades behind Your tree-line cast in shade It shakes tonight and changes shape And falls on frozen street parade, Hey. Sweet Francesca, I touch you every hour I touch you more than ever You’re like Time and Voice Complete You’re my tongue when voice gets weak You’re the only thing of Time If nothing from this loving stays— Shh! Touch me again! I’m real to you and you to me Come to me. Call me home, Aum, aum, aum.
8.
The Artist 04:04
Everyone at this party gets me high And talks of last and second names I’d love to see one ounce of shame Before I retire And when it comes to moving just slightly A glorious roar comes over here, here Reactive aims pronounced with fear Perhaps they see that in me? It’s hard to believe in a readiness so sound When everybody’s waiting for It to come around It started as just liking to moan I hope nobody here is waiting alone Dancing in halls, and the radiance surrounds The one who I call Virgil took me half the way down Try thinking of one good reason why I should do All the strange, uncomfortable things You think I should do And now everybody’s wrapped in waiting And tired of awaiting All members of this great mystery talk loudly And I lose my drive to listen, oh no. I’m tired and so take me home Maybe nobody will notice? Your dance hall isn’t criminal I’m just terribly hip-to-notice Just tell them something beautiful I might like to come back here It’s hard to believe in a misery so sound When everybody’s waiting for you to come around It started as just liking to do But now everybody’s rapt and waiting for you Lost in a hall, and busy-ness surrounds The one who I call Virgil took me half the way down We’re fabled to be liking that tune But I really just think we’re waiting (Yes, but waiting is not a-waiting) Is there anything else but waiting? (Yes, but waiting is not a-waiting) Everybody is just waiting (Yes, but waiting is not a-waiting) And tired of a-waiting.
9.
I, I am An extraordinary man I come to people People come to me Such beautiful people Such, such beautiful skin Such beautiful skin And I live I believe that I live In beautiful places Disguising ruins A humungous facing of Tremendous ruins Yes, to my sister my own ruin Now a flame is making smoke disguised Now it pours in to the city, and it Feels like (just now) I’m a lonely kind of bitch to it Bitch to almost And I love My God, how I love! Tremendous takes of glorious loves! And unreal mis-takes of misguided light! But, who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love?

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released November 11, 2012

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Jon David Russell Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Jon David Russell is a musician, composer, and visual artist living in Pittsburgh, PA

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